China plays a preeminent role in luxury consumption in the global arena. However, the antecedents, attributes, and outcomes of conspicuous consumption among the Chinese, as well as how such a consumption preference can influence hospitality practices, are not yet fully understood. This study intends to address these issues. Through the discussions of five focus groups that consist of 38 hospitality-related Chinese practitioners, this study debunks the myth of conspicuous consumption among the Chinese in general and hospitality settings by identifying the characteristics of experiential conspicuous consumption in hotels as well as those in general settings. This study also theoretically conceptualizes conspicuous consumption by proposing a causality model on the basis of research findings. The characteristics of experiential conspicuous consumption in hotels are aligned with those of general settings for clear understanding of such a behavior in Chinese society. Strategies for constructing conspicuous consumption experience in hotels are derived accordingly.

*The Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA†Department of Society and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA‡Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

In 2017, the US National Park Service faced a nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog. To address this backlog, they announced plans to increase entrance fees in 17 of the most visited parks. As fees are a component of the travel cost, we consider price change effects on demand for park entry. Demand for the 17 parks is shown to be inelastic. Recognizing that spending in gateway communities is complementary to national park visitation, we use Yellowstone National Park as a case study on entrance fee increase effects on gateway communities. We estimate a $3.4 million annual loss in gateway community spending by visitors as a result of reduced visitation by those visitors who choose not to purchase a 7-day pass. Acknowledging the diminishing effect of the fee increase on travel costs, we further explore alternative means of structuring fees based on examples of other countries.

*School of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA†School of Hospitality Business Management, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA‡Graduate Institute of Hospitality Education, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Kaohsiung, Taiwan§China–New Zealand Tourism Research Unit, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

The theory of guanxi, coming from the work in Chinese psychology, has been widely applied in marketing and management academy. Although tourism scholars have paid considerable attention to Chinese tourists, the use of Chinese psychology in explaining the market remains limited. The purpose of this study is to apply guanxi in explaining Chinese tourists’ destination loyalty using Taiwan as a case study of a tourist destination. Based on the guanxi theory, the study results showed that cognitive image, affective image, and perceived value exerted positive influences on destination loyalty. Further, sentiment, one dimension of cognitive image, appears to play a determining role for Mainland Chinese tourists to establish guanxi with Taiwan.

In recent times, food travel has continued to gain in popularity and food and beverage activities are an important consideration for travelers. According to World Food Travel Association (WFTA), more than 9 in 10 travelers are now considered to be food travelers because they have participated in a “food or beverage experience other than dining out, at some point in the past 12 months.” At the same time, travelers are an at-risk population for foodborne illnesses due to their tendency to eat out and experience local gastronomy. While health care providers and tourism service providers can and should advise travelers on ways to mitigate foodborne risks, it is ultimately the responsibility of travelers to protect themselves. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate antecedents of food travelers’ engagement in personal protective behaviors (PPBs) related to foodborne illnesses during two phases of the travel experience: prior to and during travel. The independent variables were the extent of prior international travel experience, prior experience with foodborne illnesses, concerns about food safety, and food safety and foodborne illness risk perceptions. Data were collected via an online panel of food travelers from the US who had traveled outside of the country at least once in their lifetime (n = 758). Results revealed that concerns about food safety were antecedents of engagement in all five PPBs. Risk perceptions were antecedents of engagement in the during travel PPBs. The extent of prior international travel experience and prior experience with foodborne illnesses were inconsistent antecedents. The first two findings suggest that cognition (in terms of risk perceptions) is a driver of engagement in PPBs during travel and affect (in terms of concerns) is a driver of engagement in PPBs prior to and during travel. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

*School of Business, Law and Communications, Southampton Solent University, Southampton, UK†Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand‡School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden§Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland¶School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

The concept of resilience has gained momentum in current tourism research, yet there are still flaws and discrepancies between the many notions applied in the field. These limitations are further evident when we focus on tourist destinations. The aim of this article is to advance the conceptualization of destination resilience through a multilevel perspective (MLP) that frames landscape, regime, niche, and actors as integrated elements of the tourism system. The resulting framework encompasses ecological, socioecological, sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and sociotechnological dimensions reflecting the embeddedness of resilience among heterogeneous and potentially complementary destination stakeholders. It is argued that the use of the MLP advances the understanding of tourism destination planning, particularly in contexts coping with gradual as well as drastic changes due to both demand fluctuations and supply-side disturbances.

Address correspondence to Alberto Amore, School of Business, Law and Communications, Solent University, East Park Terrace, SO14 0YN Southampton, UK. E-mail:
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School of Hospitality, Sport and Tourism Management, Troy University, USA

Measuring the resilience of a dynamic system is a difficult undertaking. This article is an effort to present intersecting theories between destination resilience and sustainable tourism. Traditional tourism management relies on a narrow focus based in scientific approaches that are often linear in concept. This type of thinking may lead to some limitations in planning and a full understanding of how the tourism industry operates on various scales. Resilience describes the capacity of a system to absorb change and continue to persist. Sustainability is the intersection of social, economic, institutional, and ecological variables. In this article, a heuristic model is presented that combines and adapts Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle and Holling’s Adaptive Cycle. This heuristic model is intended to stimulate theories on destination resilience within the context of sustainable tourism.

*USC Center for Public Relations, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA†Department of Management, Farmer School of Business, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

Destinations around the world are rolling out smart tourism initiatives to increase their competitiveness and to support their sustainability goals. However, whether smart tourism development can also help them build resilience is a question that currently lacks an answer. This article links the two concepts of smart destinations and destination resilience at the conceptual level and presents a five-pillar framework of smart destination resilience. Specifically, it suggests smart tourism infrastructure and governance equip smart destinations with sensing, opening, sharing, governing, and innovating capacities that can enhance destination resilience by supporting six specific resilience conditions. As such, the article provides the necessary theoretical building blocks to support empirical research at the intersection of smart tourism and destination resilience. It further provides practical insights on how to ensure that smart destination development leads to greater resilience but also warns of the need to scope out potential vulnerabilities inherent in smart destination design.

Thailand’s inbound tourism industry has grown significantly during the early part of the 21st century. By the end of 2017, Thailand attracted the highest level of international tourist visitation of the 10-nation Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) with 35.38 million international visitors. By 2017, it was the ninth most visited country in the world and ranked second only to China as the most visited national destination in Asia. A key characteristic of Thailand’s government destination management and marketing organization [Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)] and the private sector of Thailand’s tourism industry has been a remarkable capacity for destination resilience. This article focuses on the resilience of Thailand as a destination between 2002 and 2018 through the theoretical prism of organizational resilience and the destination sustainability framework. During this period, Thailand’s tourism industry overcame a range of potentially damaging crises and reputational challenges. This article seeks to explain the TAT’s commitment to embedding resilience into its strategic planning. TAT’s extensive implementation of effective risk and crisis management best practices has enabled Thailand’s tourism market to recover rapidly from a range of challenges. TAT’s commitment to resilience is enhanced by its extensive cooperation with both its private sector stakeholders and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), which is headquartered in Bangkok. The Thai tourism industry’s commitment to risk and crisis management reflects the importance of tourism to Thailand’s national reputation, image, and economy. TAT’s close relationship with PATA and ASEAN Tourism, two transnational tourism associations with a strong commitment to destination resilience, has helped to benchmark Thailand’s qualitative approach to tourism resilience. TAT demonstrates a clear appreciation that rapid recovery from crisis events and effective contingency management practice require a high level of collaboration with key stakeholders. Numerous private sector stakeholders with a vested interest in the success of Thai tourism represent all sectors of the tourism industry. They have readily contributed their resources and support to Thailand’s marketing campaigns.

Destinations around the world are adopting a resilience framework to deal with the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters affecting the tourism industry. However, agreed upon measures and models of resilience by the tourism industry have yet to be determined. This article proposes a scalable resilience model for tourism destinations, extending the application of the Regional Tourism Adaptation Framework (RTAF) to diverse types of risks and different size destinations. Specifically, it addresses gaps with the RTAF model and extends the model to address these gaps. As such, the article uses theories from the resilience literature as well as knowledge about the tourism industry to build out a more scalable and generalizable model. It further discusses limitations of the model that need to be tested in future studies.